Electrically conducting reverse osmosis membranes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9802163-B2
Application number	US-201514621795-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 13, 2015
Priority date	Feb 13, 2014
Publication date	Oct 31, 2017
Grant date	Oct 31, 2017

Abstract

The disclosure provides composite membranes for use in water purification and filtration.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electrically conductive composite membrane comprising a polymer support, a functionalized carbon nanotube (CNT) layer on the polymer support, and a polyamide-CNT layer on the CNT layer, wherein the polyamide-CNT layer comprises CNTs incorporated within a polyamide matrix, and wherein the electrically conductive composite membrane has electric conductivity of about 400 S/m.

2. The electrically conductive membrane of claim 1 , wherein the CNTs form ester bonds with trimesoyl choloride.

3. The electrically conductive composite membrane of claim 1 formed by:
pressure depositing a solution of functionalized carbon nanotubes onto a polymer membrane support to form a CNT-membrane composite; and

drying the composite.

4. The electrically conductive composite membrane of claim 3 , wherein the functionalized carbon nanotubes are prepared by placing functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in powder form in deionized water at a concentration of about 0.05 to about 0.15 mg/ml together with a surfactant and sonicating suspension to form a solution.

5. The electrically conductive composite membrane of claim 4 , wherein the surfactant is sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate.

6. The electrically conductive composite membrane of claim 4 , wherein the solution is centrifuged to remove clumps and debris.

7. The electrically conductive composite membrane of claim 3 , wherein the pressure depositing is performed at a pressure of about 50 psi or greater on a membrane support.

8. The electrically conductive composite of claim 1 or 3 , wherein the functionalized carbon nanotubes are functionalized with COOH, OH, and/or NH 2 functional groups.

9. The electrically conductive composite of claim 1 or 3 , wherein the carbon nanotubes are single-walled, multi-walled, or double-walled carbon nanotubes.

10. The electrically conductive composite of claim 1 or 3 , wherein the membrane support comprises a polyethersulfone or polysulfone.

Assignees

• Univ California
• Univ Duke

Inventors

• Jassby David
• Wiesner Mark
• De Lannnoy Charles-Francois

Classifications

• B01D69/148

  Organic/inorganic mixed matrix membranes · CPC title

• B01D67/0079

  Manufacture of membranes comprising organic and inorganic components · CPC title

• B01D71/021 Primary

  Carbon · CPC title

• C02F1/441

  by reverse osmosis · CPC title

• B01D2325/26

  Electrical properties · CPC title